Advancements in computer technology and digital communications have made it possible for companies or organizations to conduct commerce electronically (e-commerce) using public or private networked computer systems. Such systems may generally provide a web server for customers or clients to execute transactions. There are presently no uniform standards for e-commerce, and thus there are many technical differences and inconsistencies between the data presentation, data organization, data content, databases and communications methods used in each of the systems used for e-commerce. As a result, it is largely impossible at the present time to conduct true “any to any” (buyer to seller) electronic commerce.
“Any to any” e-commerce may be defined here as the capability of any known or unknown commercial/government organization to electronically complete all of the processes to purchase or respond to an advertised or published request for proposal (RFP) for goods or services by a known or unknown seller, where such orders and RFPs are subject to applicable regulations and final acceptance by the seller.
Technologies currently existing to replace paper-based document exchange with electronic document exchange such as Extensible Markup Language (XML)/Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), World-Wide-Web (WWW) applications and extranets may require all trading partners be identified and in virtually all cases they adopt the same applications and use the same network, such as the Internet. These technologies do not lend themselves to open “any to any” business commerce because they typically use Web-based languages such as hypertext markup language (HTML), XML or other derivatives where no two implementations are exactly alike, making open “any to any” e-commerce very difficult or impossible.
Furthermore, the large number of Internet and WWW-based proprietary and custom e-commerce software products deployed may be so great that worldwide interoperability between these systems may be very difficult if not impossible. Such impediments are further greatly magnified in international commerce when currency, linguistic, tariff, trading partner, export control, trading bloc and other variables are added.
A further impediment to international e-commerce is the lack of a native global naming directory service presently implemented on the Internet or elsewhere. Unique, globally significant names may be required to identify organizations, trading partners and suppliers engaging in international “any to any” e-commerce. Services universally understood to be useful in locating information identifying organizations and/or entities such as the telephone directory “White” and “Yellow” pages are not available on the Internet except that a few WWW sites which enable users to retrieve information, directions and contact information for organizations based on a search of either actual telephone directories or a custom database.
The Internet has no complete “White” or “Yellow” pages or global naming service designed specifically to identify organizations. Rather, Internet sites are named and accessed by entering an Internet Domain Name System (DNS) address, (e.g., www.uspto.gov), which may need to be known before the site may be accessed. DNS addresses reference only the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and domains of the hosts on which the WWW sites reside.
The Internet is by definition an unmanaged “network of networks” growing spontaneously worldwide. The primary Internet service, the World Wide Web, and WWW languages such as HTML and XML were created for document search/retrieval applications rather than electronic business commerce. The various HTML/XML standards and varying implementations at sites worldwide, along with thousands of proprietary e-commerce software products, make international business to business electronic commerce difficult and “any to any” e-commerce impossible.
Furthermore, most changes in the important variables for international e-commerce such as tariffs, exchange rates and export controls are determined on a national level. Widely dispersed, Internet site-based e-commerce systems have no way of immediately recognizing and updating the data available to commerce applications to reflect these changes. In addition, it may be extremely costly to establish and maintain an Internet-based e-commerce web site, so it may be much more cost effective to for a small or medium sized business to undertake a publish and subscribe e-commerce model.
Thus, a clear need exists in the art for a new computer architecture based on national (country) deployment designed specifically to enable governments, organizations, and entities located in each country to locate goods, services, and economic resources worldwide, to engage in a full range of purchasing, management, and supply chain activities and to receive payment by electronic funds transfer.